Calling On The George Graham Spirit
Apr 3rd, 2008 by 'holic
You know it’s not your night when your centre forward makes a goal-line clearance to deny you victory. You know it’s not your night when the referee misses a blatant tug in the box and is just feet away from the incident. Only we could have got Holland’s answer to Mister Magoo in charge.
Yet one still left the Grove last night with the uneasy feeling that Liverpool had achieved their aim for the night, and they are now truly in the driving seat. They came with banks of four and five to frustrate. We knew they would, and still they succeeded.
The lead was secured when Adebayor climbed, and hung in the air for what seemed an eternity, to head home. It was squandered, rather too tamely, three minutes later. Gerrard worked the left side of the box and squared for Kuyt, who had gained a vital yard on his marker, Clichy, to slide home.
Liverpool finished the first half the stronger but they were rarely to be spotted at our end of the stadium as they sought just to protect their draw in the second-half. The half began with Walcott replacing van Persie, once again it would appear ‘gone in the fetlock’. Theo produced a wonderful drive that Reina did well to paw away.
Eboue squandered a real opportunity just seconds before Hleb, advancing in the box, was hauled down by Kuyt. It looked a penalty from a hundred yards away. Checking the replays this morning it is beyond belief that the referee did not see it. Quite simply the inexperienced official ‘bottled’ it.
Fabregas looked to have finally broken through, only to see Bendtner contrive to clear off the line. In all honesty the fact that he was on the line suggests an offside call couldn’t be contested.
The final whistle brought a subdued and solemn march for the trains. “You have to have some grudging respect for them. That’s what George Graham’s side used to do to teams in years gone by. No wonder they hated us for it!” One old boy put it into perspective.
We now go into a run of three ‘must win’ games, and much could depend on just how badly hurt van Persie is. Can we win a one-off cup tie at Anfield to advance? Last season gives us the answer. I cannot argue that Liverpool have grabbed a significant advantage last night, but similarly they cannot claim that it’s job done.
The second-leg has all the makings of a cracker, and maybe we can invoke the spirit of a George Graham side in the past. May 1989 all over again, anyone?
12 Responses to “Calling On The George Graham Spirit”
Give the ball to theo – always free on the wing and looks dangerous when he has the ball at his feet.
Give Theo more of a moving room at the right as he is very comfortable but he needs support and good finishing from his strikers.
He regularly had time and space on the right – it seems to me that the other players do not have confidence in him as they always seem to swith the play. I had an ideal view of him last night and whenever he got the ball he looked dangerous as he injected speed into the attack. All we need is end product!!!!!
wenger complaining rightly about the penalty but he does not mention that overall we do not work the goalie adebayor very good header but what else other the usual decisions for offside will he never learn eboue absolute pits give theo more time and please give us a midfield holder like makalele flamini forgot about this role last night at times was further upfield than fab thus giving lpl chances to pick up the ball in that area
i truthfully feel we didnt get the decisions and that jus took us outta the cup.we can score at Anfield i trully belive that but i also believe we wont be able to handle a lpl and anfield onslaught if it were to come to that…i said last week that we failed to handle an onslaught at the Bridge how could we possibly manage to keep them out at anfield???
um dissappointed and i am as optimistic as they come but my goodness what other top four team has two players like Diaby and Eboue????
Please convince me otherwise becoz i trully cant see us doing it now!!
Choke!!
have to say Theo was awesome on the left,
he is much better here than on the right, as he can go both ways, inside and outside,
when he’s on the right he doesn’t like to cut in, so he’s too predictable,
come on you gunners, with our backs to the wall is when we will be at our strongest!
I see what you’re saying, Casicky, but I think its incorrect to compare a Liverpool onslaught with a Chelsea onslaught. Chelsea are a far better team at the moment. And even they needed a dodgy linesman to beat us. Yes Liverpool came to defend but they couldn’t even do that properly, we had plenty of chances to finish the tie off, could easily have been 3-1 or 4-1, we wouldn’t be talking about Rafa’s genius tactics then. That is not how George’s team would have performed they are not that strong defensively. Masc has improved them a lot but he can’t be everywhere. They still have very slow CBs and shit full backs.
If they come at us we will score, so i expect them to be very defensive again at Anfield, they will be assuming that our incredibly poor defence will gift them a goal. But if we can keep it tight at the back i am hopeful we can score there and the nerves will quickly set in for them as much as they would for us. They are human and all this ‘Liverpools years of CL experience’ stuff is bollox. Its about this set of players, Torres, Benayoun, Babel etc, not just Gerrard, Hyppia, Carra and Reina. If we go 1-0 up at Anfield and they storm back at us then fair enough but this season, this Liverpool team have not shown that character. Its too early to say they have more balls and clearer heads than our lot. Theres plenty of guts and steel in this Arsenal team and we can definitely get a result there. Believe. Nothing i saw last night makes me think that we are out, we still have a great chance of going through.
Gunners 2-1, Theo to get the winner, how sweet would that be, to knock them out at Anfield.
casicky you are spot on about eboue and diaby. Even when played in position i don’t rate either of them, i would be happy to never see either in an Arsenal shirt again.
they were rarely to be spotted at our end of the stadium
You’re quite wrong, ‘holic. They were mostly spotted at our end of the stadium.
What? Oh. I see. You were over there. 😉
Nice to see you again, as usual!
Heh, and thank you for the pint Ollie. Let this be a public record of the fact that I owe you a pint of the black stuff.
I asked for clarity elsewhere and would love it here if it can be given, ‘holic included.
You say about Bendtner; “In all honesty the fact that he was on the line suggests an offside call couldn’t be contested.”
You didn’t spot the three Liverpool players on or behind the line on the replay? Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as if Nicklas was going to turn it in, it was right bungled by master Bendtner. But when I asked my Liverpool supporting mate “why was that offside?” after watching the replay all he could do was shrug his shoulders and say “I have no idea”.
Please, clarification anyone? Or do I need to watch it again because I’m wrong. I’d love to know. Trivial as it is.
Other than that I’m not disappointed in the performance, it’s all to play for. Bring on Anfield!!! I’m happy with our prospects.